Apr

30

Judge A Book By Its Cover.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Times are tough for researchers who want to get their work published and widely distributed, but then they have a hard time even in good economic times. Among other things this can prompt them to give their books catchy titles and cause publishers to try and design even catchier covers. Sometimes, though, trying to be [...]

Apr

29

Get Stuffed.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 29, 2009 | 2 Comments

As a final parting shot to American Poetry Month, I’d like to tear open a wound that’s been sutured by the decade or so that’s put it behind us. There’s an annual series titled The Best American Poetry. Like most of these series it seems to be an exercise in futility. The poems that are [...]

Apr

27

Book ‘Em: For Better Or Verse.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 27, 2009 | 1 Comment

One of the things that turns people off of poetry, I think, is the belief that it always has to be somber, bleak, depressing. Poetry has to be about death, and it has to be hard to understand, and it exists in its own private universe. Well, that doesn’t necessarily have to be true. Find [...]

Apr

25

Word Of The Week: April 25th, 2009

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever played Scrabble, you know that drawing the letter Q without getting a U to go with it can usually spell disaster. Well, technically there’s neither a Q nor a U in disaster, but you know what I mean. But, rare as they are, there are a few words in English that start [...]

Apr

24

But I Repeat Myself (Part 3)

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 24, 2009 | 1 Comment

The Triolet
Eight lines, not three,
And much repetition.
Just two rhymes–ab–
Eight lines, not three,
Seems funny to me,
But that’s the position;
Eight lines, not three,
And much repetition.
-Stanley Sharpless
Third time’s a charm, right? It seemed fitting for the third and final part of this series to be devoted to the triolet, a fun little form that’s just eight lines. The [...]

Apr

23

But I Repeat Myself (Part 2)

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

The rondeau is shorter than the villanelle and more obscure. Unlike the villanelle it is a French form, although it was also originally meant to be sung rather than just read or recited. In fact there’s a musical form also called a rondeau. The opening theme music of Masterpiece Theatre is the first movement of [...]

Apr

22

But I Repeat Myself (Part 1)

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 22, 2009 | 1 Comment

In seventh grade I read Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening for the first time. The teacher especially focused on the last two lines:
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
She asked us, “Why do you think he repeated this line?” I raised my hand and said, [...]

Apr

22

Judge A Book By Its Cover.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Want to learn Mayan but unsure how to start? Check out Quyllur Llaqtayuq wawamanta. You know it better as The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Apr

20

Book ‘Em: It’s About Time.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment

It shouldn’t surprise anyone who really knows either poetry or science how well the two go together, how science, which some might consider the most prosaic of all enterprises, has a kind of deep, intrinsic poetry to it, and how poetry, especially now, draws on science. Of course this isn’t a new phenomenon. Alexander Pope, [...]

Apr

18

Word Of The Week: April 18th, 2009.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 18, 2009 | 1 Comment

One of the most curious repeating verse forms is the pantoum, which originally derives from a Malay form called the pantun. A pantoum consists of quatrains, with the second and fourth lines of the first stanza becoming the first and third lines of the second stanza. Then the second and fourth lines of the second [...]

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